Sorting an array of strings with custom ordering

Question

When you sort an array lets say:

const arr = ["bad", "good", "all", "ugly"]

with arr.sort() the response tends to be:

arr = ["all", "bad", "good", "ugly"]

but what if I need custom ordering such as:

arr = ["bad", "good", "ugly", "all"]

ie for the sake of the example you need to push the "all" element to the end of the sorted array instead of the start

What I did was to sort the array and then removed the "all" element from the array only to add it in the end ie

const a = _.pull(arr, "all");
a.splice(3, 0, "all")
console.log(a)     // ["bad", "good", "ugly", "all"]

Is there a better or a less complex way of doing the same?

is there any reason for not redeclaring the array? it seems a static array so, unless you need to work on dynamic arrays, you could just redeclare it. I wouldn't even call such a "sorting", this is rather moving an item to the end of the array. — briosheje
– briosheje, Commented Apr 9, 2019 at 10:25
please add which order do you need. actually it looks like you want to have a fixed order of the items. — Nina Scholz
– Nina Scholz, Commented Apr 9, 2019 at 11:35

Fraction · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-09 11:00:55Z

6

You can use custom comparator for sorting. Something like

[...arr].sort((x, y) => x === 'all' ? 1 : y === 'all' ? -1 : x.localeCompare(y))

const arr = ["bad", "good", "all", "ugly"];
console.log([...arr].sort((x, y) => x === 'all' ? 1 : y === 'all' ? -1 : x.localeCompare(y)))

edited Apr 9, 2019 at 11:00

Fraction

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answered Apr 9, 2019 at 10:25

mbojko

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Comments

adiga · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-09 10:42:32Z

0

You could do something like this using the OR operator:

let arr = ["all", "bad", "all", "good", "ugly"]

arr.sort((a, b) => (a == "all") - (b == "all") || a.localeCompare(b))

console.log(arr)

Subtracting booleans returns a number (true - false === 1). If one the strings is "all", it won't check the second condition at all.

edited Apr 9, 2019 at 10:42

answered Apr 9, 2019 at 10:35

adiga

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Comments

pravin kumar · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-09 10:47:47Z

0

i think below one is the idle one. Because while sorting itself you can pull the "all" to the end

let list = ["all", "bad", "good", "ugly"]
list.sort((a, b) => {
    if(a === 'all') {return 1;}
    if(b === 'all') {return -1;}
    if(a < b) { return -1; }
    if(a > b) { return 1; }
    return 0
})
console.log(list)

answered Apr 9, 2019 at 10:47

pravin kumar

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